One of the most common questions asked by the lay taxpayer is for how long they need to keep their tax records. And while there is a legislated answer for this, one wonders whether it is ever safe to destroy records.

We are signing off with a list of the top 10 most-read Inside Internal Controls posts for 2017. This year on the Inside Internal Controls blog we’ve been covering some of the hot topics in internal controls, governance, information technology, not-for-profit, and business management among others. The top 10 most-read Inside Internal Controls posts for 2017 include:

While non–profit organizations and charities are usually busy carrying out the purposes of their organization, record keeping often takes a back seat to other priorities. However, good record keeping practices by a non–profit organization or a registered charity should not be overlooked.

Lawyers are not required to collect client financial information, prepare reports on that information and submit to warrantless searches from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act…

CASL is now in force As of July 1st, individuals and organizations who send or receive commercial electronic messages (CEMs) in Canada must comply with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)’s anti-spam provisions. With CEMs being broadly defined, many organizations, including registered charities and not-for-profit organizations, are caught by CASL. Guidelines to help organizations develop corporate compliance […]

It should be clear that managing your anti-spam obligations will mean modifying your information technology processes. The CRTC has created comprehensive anti-spam guidelines that demonstrate some of the ways IT will be involved…

It’s one of those pension administration nightmares – someone of pensionable age shows up at your door claiming he was an employee 20 years ago and asks for his pension. There is some evidence of employment, but no record of a pension entitlement. As a fiduciary you cannot pay out benefits unless someone is clearly entitled, so you ask the person for some proof of the pension entitlement. At this point the person may give up; but your sense of relief is overshadowed by concerns that your record keeping did not allow you to be as certain as you might have been in disposing of the claim. On the other hand, if he doesn’t give up, it will likely be an even more costly, time-consuming and frustrating exercise.

Anti-fraud controls mainly apply to the general area of accounting (purchasing, revenue, payroll, banking and treasury, inventory, assets, etc.), but they will also involve many specific areas of operations, such as sales, payments, expenses, receivables, travel, suppliers, taxes, promotions and much more.

Reducing the risk of fraud from both external and internal sources is something that all businesses have to consider at some time, or continually, depending on the owner’s approach and taste for living on the edge. But seriously, fraud is a serious problem that can damage or even destroy a business, particularly small and medium ones, which can’t afford the potential losses.